A Big Kind of Little Love

Chapter 1: Evie

It was a pristine white storefront with tasteful blue and green lights accenting it. Posters on the outside of it said "Come to Colossus!" with a montage of pictures showing a variety of different environments, including cities, forests, beaches, mountains, and deserts. Words at the bottom of the poster read: "First-time travelers go for free!"

The poster seemed to snap Evie out of her heartbroken daze. Furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, she tried to recall her memories from high school geography in an attempt to remember seeing Colossus on a map.

A worker inside the store must have seen the perplexed girl standing there as he made his way outside.

"Hi there!" He said, seeming to be excited that someone actually took interest in what the storefront actually had. "I'm James!"

"Hi," Evie replied quietly, having never really been fond of talking to people she didn't know. "I'm Evie."

"It's nice to meet you, Evie! I just saw you taking a look at the posters," he said, "I wanted to see if you had any questions. You can ask me anything and I'll try to have an answer!"

He smiled widely and genuinely, helping Evie to feel a bit more relaxed with the stranger. He had a bouncy personality, seeming to have a very youthful spirit to him despite looking close to Evie's age.

"What's Colossus?" She asked, hoping that it wasn't a dumb question.

The man chuckled, "We get that question a lot. It's a fairly large island— well, more like, continent, in the Pacific Ocean. Right between South America and Australia."

Evie was never all that great in school, but she was fairly certain that there wasn't much of anything other than a few tiny islands in that part of the world. Never mind an entire continent.

Her perplexity must have shown on her face as the man snickered again, "You won't find it on your standard maps, so don't get confused."

While he answered one of Evie's questions, it seemed to raise a dozen others.

"What do you mean?" She asked, raising one eyebrow, "Why isn't it on a map?"

"Well, you see, Colossus is... hidden."

"Hidden? Like, underwater?"

"No, no. More like... invisible."

Evie snorted at the man's admittance and took a step away from the storefront, convinced that it was some kind of scam.

"Evie, I swear!" The man nearly shouted, trying to get Evie's attention back. "I don't know the full technology behind it, but they keep it invisible and secret from human eyes!"

He concluded that last sentence with a facial expression that looked as though he wasn't supposed to say it quite like that.

Evie only laughed more, "'Human eyes?' Who lives there? Fairies? Magical elves?"

With how rough her day had been thus far, she did not have the patience for scam sellers on the street.

"No, not elves or fairies," the man replied seriously. "But the people who live there... you might call them giants."

Evie rolled her eyes, turning her back on the man once again and beginning to walk away.

This only prompted him to become more desperate, "I can prove it!" He shouted.

"Yeah? And how's that?" Evie asked, clearly fed up with whatever the man's motive was. "Are you gonna show me some bogus video that's clearly computer-edited?"

"No, I'll show you," the man said, turning back into the store. "Follow me! I promise, Evie, I'm telling the truth."

Call it naivety, but after a moment of contemplation, Evie rolled her eyes again and reluctantly followed the spirited man into the store. It was well-decorated, with very contemporary decor. He took Evie through the door in the back of the store.